I am just an old gal, with some time on her hands, and loose thoughts from time to time... Wife, mother of 8, grandmother of 20 and great-grandmother of 21

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Alphabet Soup

I got my telephone bill yesterday.Verizon N. W. I should just lookat the bottom line and make outthe check and save myself stresstime. As you have to be partlawyer and part CPA to understand it. Besides it is a monopoly,you really don't have a heckof a lot of choice.

I look at each month anyway.There is an Alphabet soup ofletters there. There is USBI,FUSF,and USF which they tell meis going to change in charges(of course it is up, but they don'ttell me how much more) andthey informed me that theFCRA would also turn mein, if I didn't pay my bill promptly.

Which kind of irritates me, becauseso far, I have paid my billas soon as it gets here. The moneygoes out the next day. So I don'tlike being threaten. Bad enough thatthey give you less than a week to getthe money to them. Well, it is 10days, but they want you to pay itat least 5 days before the due date,because it has to be in their officein that 10 days. And they couldcare less if your pay day doesn'tcome within that time. You just betterknow how much it is and save itfrom your last payday.

So I play, I can guess what thebill is... so I save out that muchplus 5 dollars more. And if I gamblewell, I will have enough money.If not, well, folks there goes thegrocery money.

But having a computer helps giveyou better odds, because you cango to their site and find out 4 daysearlier what the amount is. Oh, theywill send out a computer advancenotice for you if you like. But so farthat has showed up the night beforeI get the bill. Big deal.

Anyway, this month I got somemore letters. ZPDI which billsfor AGM. I thought they had tobe kidding. Then I read down thebill to find out... and did you know,that Verizon does not handle theirown collection calls? I was surprised.I called the toll free number to findout what was the deal. To be toldthat ZPDI who handles it for AGM,handles this for Verizon. Which irritatesme because, why do I need 3 companies(Verizon is kind enough to collect themoney for these companies) over justone call. Which the King accepted.

And the deck is stacked. One charge isIdaho Bill Statement Fee.. $1.45 andthen there is the Operator Assisted Callwhich that was $1.91 a minute. Lucky forus it was only one minute.Then there isthe usually Fed. tax and etc.

See I don't accept collect calls.Did once it cost us $6.75!!! for aminute and half. So I hang upand by some miracle the person calls meback. Also I have caller Id so I could callback if it is someone I want to talk to.

So there you are Alphabet Soup.FCRA = Fair Credit Reporting ActFUSF = Federal Universal Service FundUSF = Idaho Universal Service FundIUSBI=no words for these letters butI bet the U stands for Universal. Andisn't it contradicting to have Idahoand Universal?And now ZPDIand AGM no words for themeither. .(althought I thoughtof a few)

2 comments:

Speaking of phones. I have a prepaid cell which is very expensive. I don't like talking on it much because of that. However I like not getting the BILL.

I just found an internet service that costs just over 10.00 out of the UK. I signed up for it. It operates from your computer and is not a telephone service per se because it cannot be used for emergencies.

But, it gives you over 10 hrs of calling time anywhere in the world. I am waiting for my paypal check to process and whoopy! So when I call out it really is not an arm and a leg! The catch is to get others to sign up on the service so you can call each other ect -- but not really a must.

If you were charged on your residential or local phone bill for third party services and subscriptions (i.e., voicemail, internet access, etc.) that you never authorized or ordered, share your story with other consumers: